ACCURATE MINIATURES 1:48 SBD-3 & SBD-5 DAUNTLESS

Reviewer: Benjamin Wallis  (rec.models.scale)

After seeing a review of these kits elsewhere I decided to bite the bullet, purchase the kits and make them myself.  I was not disappointed with the outcome, these are brilliant kits in terms of accuracy (they certainly live up to their name) and quality but did prove to be costly.  Packaged with lovely crisp injection mold parts they also feature a wealth of detail and beautifully engraved panel lines.  There are a number of parts in the kit and it's certainly not one for the beginner.

The instruction sheet is adequate but is not big on the sketching side of things so you need to plan out your assembly carefully.  Follow the instructions and steps carefully to ensure you don't get yourself in a rut because it's easy to muck things up if you are not careful. 

The cockpit detail is very good with all the features needed to make it complete.   The rudder pedals pose a bit of a problem when trying to fit the unit inside the fuselage halves and needs to be carefully positioned for an optimum fit.  One could leave these off altogether if one chose as it would take an eagle-eyed observer to notice the omission.  The cockpit and other internal detail should be painted in interior green, I used the Matt cockpit green enamel from Humbrol.

The fuselage halves line up perfectly but needs some rubber bands and well placed pegs to prevent any gaps.  The wings are also a little difficult to attach.  In magazine kit review of the SBD-3 they say not to sub-assemble the wings, but instead attach the lower half to the fuselage then upper half later.  Playing around with dry fit testing I can see why this is suggested - although sub assembling the wings will make the task easier, but leaves a bit of a gap.  Attaching the halves separately is more difficult but negates any real gap presence.  The dive flaps can be positioned open (but this only occurred when the aircraft was actually diving) as well as the other flap gear, but generally these are closed when the Dauntless is static.

The canopies fit nicely in the allocated position on the kit and are stackable.   They are thin (perhaps a bit too thin for modelling with and can cause problems for the less initiated) and very clear, making it easy to view the interior through a closed canopy.

The SBD-3 kit allows one to reproduce the Leppla/Liska plane from VS-2 in the Battle of the Coral Sea.  This aircraft is also known as "2-Sail-12" although AM points out that this aircraft was only a photographed plane for Leppla & Liska (pilot and gunner respectively) to pose in front of.  They actually flew one marked S-12 without kill markings.  AM must be commended for pointing this out to the modeller!   Things like this (along with the engineering of the kit) can only help their cause at being one of the best modelling companies on the market!

The SBD-5 kit provides markings for two VB-10 aircraft aboard USS Yorktown at the Tarawa Invasion in November 1943. The insignia seems oversized but when compared with reference photos one can see that they were large on these aircraft while others had smaller markings.  It seems to have been done this way on progressively later aircraft (from larger insignia to smaller) due to perhaps the recognition that surrounds low visibility requirements as the Air Force gained more experience, but otherwise I have no information explaining this.  Microscale and Propagatem have aftermarket decal sheets available for the SBD-5 if one wishes to choose different markings. 

The main differences between the SBD-3 and SBD-5 variants are the engine cowling and the upper fuselage area in front of the cockpit.  The SBD-3 has the single gun mount in the rear turret while the SBD-5 has a twin mount.  There is little difference between these two versions as far as the cockpit is concerned (as this is another distinctive difference between other SBD versions) and both kits cater for them respectively. 

These are very excellent little kits and the best way to compliment their accuracy is simply to say that these are the real aircraft scaled down to 1/48!  They certainly make Monogram and Hasagawa offerings b-grade which are now only good for those who don't want to be hassled by the higher complexity rating that AM offers, aside from cost of course.  Accurate Miniatures have done very well with these two versions and they are very highly recommended - in fact you should not look elsewhere, although they aren't kits that should be taken up by the beginner.

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These are official Accurate Miniatures photographs of the respective -3 & -5 finished models